By Scott Salomon
Nick Saban stepping down as the Head Football Coach at the University of Alabama does not mean that his coaching philosophy will not roam the sidelines on Saturday afternoons. Saban has had many assistant coaches who have gone on lead their respective programs to Saban-esque greatness.
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The top five assistants who coached under Saban that have gone on to greatness include Georgia head coach Kirby Smart who has won two of the last three national championships. The rest of the top five include Dan Lanning, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkasian and Mario Cristobal.
#5 Mario Cristobal
The fifth best disciple of Nick Saban is the current University of Miami head coach Mario Cristobal. Cristobal served under Saban prior to leaving for the University of Oregon where, after Willie Taggart left to coach Florida State, Cristobal served as the Head Duck and won a PAC-12 title and competed for another before he departed for the University of Miami.
Cristobal assisted Saban in winning national titles during his tenure as Offensive Line coach and Offensive Coordinator. While coaching at the University of Alabama Cristobal was one of the country’s top recruiters He brought more talent to Tuscaloosa than Amtrak.
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#4 Steve Sarkasian
Sarkasian was an offensive assistant and Offensive Coordinator under Saban while he spent his time at Alabama. After being fired by the University of Southern California his career was rejuvenated by Saban who brought him to Alabama for an off-field position before Lane Kiffin left to become the head coach at Florida Atlantic University.
Known as “Sark”. the coach helped rejuvenated Texas from cellar dwellers in the Big XII to eventual 2023 conference champion. The Longhorns played in the national semifinal against Washington this past season.
#3 Lane Kiffin
Kiffin brought the spread offense to Tuscaloosa in 2014 and has not looked back since. He helped retool Saban’s offense and helped lead Alabama to championships and New Year’s Six bowl games. Kiffin currently coaches at Ole Miss where has has won 29 games in three seasons and defeated Penn State in the Peach Bowl this past season. While at Alabama, he appeared to be the next head coach in waiting, but he departed earlier for the job at Florida Atlantic before he landed in Mississippi. While Kiffin might have been viewed as Saban’s successor while he was at Alabama, it does not appear that Kiffin is ready to leave Ole Miss where he killed it in the transfer portal and had a successful year recruiting blue-chip high school athletes.
One negative against Kiffin is that he is 3-21 against ranked Power Five teams that won at least nine games in the regular season. He has to continue to prove that he can win the big game and show that he can recruit the portal and the high schools with greater consistency.
#2 Dan Lanning
Lanning is one of the top coaches in the sport and is only 37-years old, which means that he learned a lot from Saban and took it with him to Georgia where he coordinated the Bulldogs defense and led them to a national title before he bolted for Oregon. Lanning has built a 22-5 record in two seasons at Oregon and led them to a 45-6 Fiesta Bowl title. The Ducks finished 12-2 with quarterback Bo Nix at the helm and finished the season ranked sixth in the Associated Press poll. Nix was a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2023 and rejuvenated his career since transferring from Auburn. Lanning has a bright future ahead of him as the Head Duck and accomplished a lot in his first two seasons as a head coach.
Before arriving in Georgia, Lanning coached under Kirby Smart, when Smart was the defensive coordinator at Alabama. It was at Alabama where Lanning cut his teeth as a great recruiter and defensive coach. Lanning will have to continue his winning ways without Nix, who will move on to the National Football League and start playing on Sundays.
#1 Kirby Smart
What can be said about Smart that has not already been written? Smart spent 11 seasons coaching under Saban, including the last eight at Alabama as the Defensive Coordinator. Smart has amassed a 94-16 record in Athens and has gone 56-9 in the SEC while at Georgia.
Georgia had a 29-game winning streak over three seasons before losing to Saban’s Crimson Tide in the 2023 Southeastern Championship game. Smart led the Bulldogs to two consecutive national championships with quarterback Stetson Bennett and dismantled the fifth-ranked Florida State Seminoles 63-3 in the Orange Bowl.
Smart does not appear to be losing on the recruiting trail as he helped Georgia secure the top-ranked recruiting class for the 2024 cycle. It appears though everyone that Smart wants, he gets, whether it is in the portal or traditional recruiting cycle.
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